Earlier this year, Microsoft came up with a novel plan to sell game consoles. Rather than charge a huge bundle of cash up front - $250 for an Xbox 360 with a 4 gb hard drive - the new deal asked for only $99 and a 2 year contract for Xbox Live at $14.99/month. At the time, it seemed like a subsidized cell phone contract, something very common here in the States, but the small hard drive seemed too constrictive. It looks like either Microsoft realized that fact or enough people enjoyed the first offering because the company has added two options to its Xbox subscription plans: a 250 gb hard drive Xbox for $99 up front, and the same model with a Kinect sensor for $150. A two year Xbox Live Gold Subscription is still necessary to take advantage of these plans.

In addition to the new plans, Microsoft teases more retail outlets that will offer this "Xbox 360 Entertainment for All" idea. Under a "Coming Soon" header, the company implores you to "Please check back later to see a full list of participating retailers." That most likely means you'll be able to stroll into a Walmart and walk out with an Xbox 360 for a hundred bucks.

I find these plans intriguing. Game console-makers have always had a tough sell from the start. It's difficult to convince gamers to drop up to $600 - I'm looking at you PlayStation 3 - at launch when there isn't a library of games to play. With Microsoft shifting so much of its strategy to offering the full entertainment spectrum of TV, movies, sports, oh and games all on the Xbox 360, it makes much more sense to lock customers into a Xbox Live plan.

And who knows, perhaps these kind of plans will be the way we buy the Xbox 720 ...

Wow, that's...an incredibly good deal! Seriously, this is very cheap for a console, just wish a PS3 would do the same, I want to play some exclusives (and Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD reMIX that was hinted at in 3D and confirmed later)

I still don't like the 'entertainment for all' approach Microsoft is taking. Why even make a console if most of your system isn't related to games anymore? Why not just make a smartTV peripheral or something?

Regardless, the deal does seem solid at least. I am wondering how they plan to enforce payments however.

TizzytheTormentor:Wow, that's...an incredibly good deal! Seriously, this is very cheap for a console, just wish a PS3 would do the same, I want to play some exclusives (and Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD reMIX that was hinted at in 3D and confirmed later)

Sony might do something to compete with this. Although since PSN is free they'll probably do something related to Playstation Plus membership. That thing pays for itself.

OT: This might get me to buy another Xbox as I wouldn't mind getting a new one. My old used launch one that I bought just isn't powerful enough and I only have had a 20GB HDD for about 4 years now.

TizzytheTormentor:Wow, that's...an incredibly good deal! Seriously, this is very cheap for a console, just wish a PS3 would do the same, I want to play some exclusives (and Kingdom Hearts 1.5 HD reMIX that was hinted at in 3D and confirmed later)

Sony might do something to compete with this. Although since PSN is free they'll probably do something related to Playstation Plus membership. That thing pays for itself.

OT: This might get me to buy another Xbox as I wouldn't mind getting a new one. My old used launch one that I bought just isn't powerful enough and I only have had a 20GB HDD for about 4 years now.

I could totally buy this as a present to a family friend for their birthday...and be known as the best guy ever!

It's a shame they're doing this at the end of the lifecycle of the 360, but at the same time, given that a lot of the services a console uses could require some kind of internet subscription, making that part of the deal for purchasing the hardware doesn't strike me as a bad idea.

It looks like a great deal, and chances are you're going to get xbox live anyway , $15/month adds up to $360 for xbox live so with the $100 console $460 over two years. while if you were to buy the console ($299 for the 250GB) and two years of XBL ($59.99/year) you're looking at $420 total. so ya a difference of $40 to walk out of the store with an xbox 360 250GB. I'd call that an excellent deal!

Fappy:Let's just hope the launch generation 720 doesn't suffer a similar problem that the 360 did (RRoD)!

These new slims don't even have that problem.

I would totally be all over this deal if I didn't already own one. My entertainment budget is very limited per month, so long as the the price isn't to big of a difference between paying out right and paying monthly, I'll choose monthly.

GenGenners:I still don't like the 'entertainment for all' approach Microsoft is taking. Why even make a console if most of your system isn't related to games anymore? Why not just make a smartTV peripheral or something?

Because you still need one to play the games that still exist and are still being made?

That said, their idea of a "full spectrum of entertainment" is a joke. You're literally paying a subscription price just to have access to things that are already free (YouTube, the Web) or require an additional subscription (Netflix, Hulu Plus). At least with a set-top box like AppleTV you're only paying one time for the hardware, even if it can't do anything else. There is literally nothing in Xbox Live worth paying for besides access to the multiplayer ... which I might add is also free on other platforms.

taciturnCandid:Cost up front. 100$24 months at 15$ a month= 360.Two years of live if you take microsoft's rate is 120. If you get it online you can buy cards to make it about 100$ for two years.

so that means about 360$ for the console. I don't think that is a very good deal at all

Microsoft lists on their website a 250 gb xbox being worth 250$ at the sale price they have. 300 normally. Still not a good deal

That's exactly what I thought. You can get a brand new 250GB console for 300 bucks. If you wanna buy a refurbished one, it would be $250. You can even go lower if you know where to look but okay. Let's do $250 for the sake of the argument.

Amazon has deals every now and then where they offer a year subscription to Live for 40 bucks. overall, that's $290. Plus tax, that's about...$310? Ish? That's still cheaper than the 2 years of Live by themselves.

taciturnCandid:Cost up front. 100$24 months at 15$ a month= 360.Two years of live if you take microsoft's rate is 120. If you get it online you can buy cards to make it about 100$ for two years.

so that means about 360$ for the console. I don't think that is a very good deal at all

Microsoft lists on their website a 250 gb xbox being worth 250$ at the sale price they have. 300 normally. Still not a good deal

But you also get 2 years of Xbox live for your $360. You still save money. That doesn't necessarily mean it's worth it though.

This deal makes me almost re-think my hatred of microsoft's gaming department. If I got a new Xbox and 2 years of live for that price, I could get Halo 4 and play online.Of course, I would still much rather 343 put it on the playstation, but that is just an unreachable dream.

taciturnCandid:Cost up front. 100$24 months at 15$ a month= 360.Two years of live if you take microsoft's rate is 120. If you get it online you can buy cards to make it about 100$ for two years.

so that means about 360$ for the console. I don't think that is a very good deal at all

Microsoft lists on their website a 250 gb xbox being worth 250$ at the sale price they have. 300 normally. Still not a good deal

But you also get 2 years of Xbox live for your $360. You still save money. That doesn't necessarily mean it's worth it though.

This deal makes me almost re-think my hatred of microsoft's gaming department. If I got a new Xbox and 2 years of live for that price, I could get Halo 4 and play online.Of course, I would still much rather 343 put it on the playstation, but that is just an unreachable dream.

Xbox live for 2 years. 100-120$

This "deal"

Pay 99$

Then you have to buy 2 years of live at 15$ a month rather than the 5$ it is right now.

So two years of live at that rate is 360$

that is paying 460$ in total

To buy a new xbox with a 250 gb for full price is 250$ or sometimes 300. Live is another 100 to 120 for 2 years.

So total cost there is at most 420$. If you buy it from the microsoft store or refurbished and then buy xbox live cards from amazon, you end up paying 350$ for a 250 hard drive and 2 years of live.

You lose money. If you buy totally new from a retailer in a physical store and buy the normal xbox live membership, it is 300 and then 60$ a year for xbox live. So at very worst you pay 40$ more for this "deal". Furthermore, you are locked into paying for a service for two years, no matter what the state of the console market is